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I think it’s time to tell you a bit more about the yarn business which Ellie and I are working on at the moment. We played at dyeing for a few months, but for just over a month now we’ve counted it as a business. Two reasons for this really; firstly, we’re enjoying it so much that we can happily imagine ourselves doing this more and more in the future, and secondly (I’m not usually this immodest, but) we seem to be good enough at it to produce saleable items!

We’re doing well in Big Knitters on Wellfield Road in Cardiff, and we’ve had a very generous response from fellow members of the Cardiff knitting groups. Also, our Etsy store is thriving. I genuinely didn’t expect to sell very much during the first weeks of trading, and so I’ve been so thrilled by the healthy level of sales we’ve made. We’re ploughing it all straight back into the business so that we can increase the level of stock as soon as possible, so we’re able to have lots of dyeing days. This is brilliant for me, because I’ve got all of this gorgeous yarn in the house, in a veritable rainbow of colours – knitter’s heaven! How many knitters dream of living in a yarn shop, able to reach out and pick up whatever they fancy to knit with? I’m living that dream! I’ve just dyed up a batch of aran merino which I bought specially to make a jumper for myself in the new year – a purple finger is testament to this (my glove broke – occupational hazard!) – and I’ve now got another fourteen skeins left to dye for the shop. It’s fantastic. I’m feeling guilty a lot of the time because I’m having so much fun, then I remind myself that this is what it must be like to enjoy your job! I’m also taking the opportunity to try my hand at pattern design, so that there are some patterns especially geared at our yarn. Ellie has also done some of this, and has created a lovely shawl pattern. I’ve got two shawl patterns on the way, as well as some scandinavian style mittens and some gloves. I’ve already published a hat pattern and a pattern for fingerless gloves. It’s very gratifying to be able to do something like this, rather than follow someone else’s pattern for a change!

Well, long may this last. I feel as if I may finally have found what it is I’m supposed to be doing. Having spent many years working in an office job which, let’s be honest, has been less than fulfilling, makes the potential to be running my own yarn business even more exciting. It’s nice to feel that I could be good at something, and valued for a talent which I enjoy to exercise!

2 Responses

Thank you honey – Wednesday was a really bad day for other reasons, so I really felt the need to lay out the positives, if only for myself! But it is very thrilling that people like our stuff enough to lay out money on it!